This Could Be Newcastle’s Best Team Against Swansea

Rafa Benitez in his press conference was as confident as ever but he still has some defenders missing.

Not available through injury are Fabricio Coloccini, Steven Taylor and Daryl Janmaat. and apparently Colo had a reaction in training earlier ion the week and will not be available for tomorrow – so that’s 8 weeks he’s been out with that calf injury and we have picked up just one point in those games.

The captain’s fitness will be monitored for the next game – although its difficult to see him being available for Tuesday night and Manchester City – another tough game.

Fab Coloccini – been out 8 weeks
Dummett is back but we will have another patched up defense not for the first time this season – and if Rafa does decide to stay on Tyneside we can expect to see some defenders to be brought in this summer – thank goodness!

We may even be able to stop the other side scoring next season?

Jack Colback is back from suspension and Rafa could play his best players tomorrow and hope star men like Moussa Sissoko and Gini Wijnaldum show some life – for a change.

Doesn’t matter what team Benitez puts out, he has not got the balls to drop sissoko and Gini, play two youngsters who have got more energy and passion than those two clowns, sissoko wants to play champions league football, yeah right, he would struggle in the championship nevermind champions league.

They need to not give up and believe they can avoid the drop irrelevant of what happens at Carrow road. Stranger things have happened.
If we lose tomorrow and Norwich win I think we can assume it’s over.

If Rafa really on £4.5m a year and it’s deigned that he can’t or won’t be affordable then Ashley’s dafter than I’d imagined.

There’s hundreds of millions available by being in the Prem and surely it makes sense to invest Rafa’s wages, those of his staff and pay for decent players.

It seems to me that Ashley’s not going to sponsor the Club personally, hence arranging for SD to pay for its ground advertising and try to attract revenue from other advertisers.

But to gain from advertising, there must be exposure and how’s that going to be maximised? By taking whatever league we’re in by the scruff of the neck, by being successful.

And how cam the Club be successful? By appointing someone like Rafa who commands respect and bring much expertise, much vision to it and undertake a thorough overhaul of its rotten structure. Could Gary Monk be that man? No chance.

Letting Rafa go would mean that Ashley’s foregone an opportunity to rebuild the Club and take it forward.

Now is the time when substantial investment’s needed and Ashley could start by getting rid of the clowns who’ve done Ashley’s bidding over the years.

Love the idea if dropping Gini for the home game against Swansea. Yes drop our top scorer this season…..all of his goals have come at home so drop him for this home game rather than playing him further forward where he can get in the box and score…..excellent thinking by Patoon, Hail Wor Ashley and Goofy. Unbelievable!!

Sissoko and Gini get scapegoated a lot, some of it justified but let’s not forget the others, on current form no one in our side deserves to get slated more than any other player!!

He’s done nothing in a long time. At first it was just away, but the last few months he’s disappeared completely. At least when Sissoko is crap he’s visibly so and you can point to why he’s crap through his participation.

And Welsh included in that list, let’s hope the players have learned how to cross and hopefully Shelvey learns it’s more about the team than 80 yard Hollywood passes. We got no points for him attempting them type of passes. Janmaat out injured is a blessing. Normally I think we’ll lose but tomorrow I have a felling victory is on the cards. Agree with the other poster that a win for the mackems is better for us

Yes he’s done nothing for months, let’s not forget more recently he’s been playing as the holding midfielder. He may not have done much for months but still leads the scoring charts!! In a team that seriously lacks goals, a few of you are suggesting to drop our leading scorer from midfield….and he’s leading by some distance!! The mind boggles really does on that one!!

Who would you play if you dropped him? Last time I checked we play Swansea at home not away. So begs the question why you’d want to drop a goalscoring midfielder when he’s scored all his goals at home. Drop him for the likes of SDJ as well, if that lad had scored his header against villa, which was easier to score than miss, we’d be 2 points better off.

Gini may not have scored of late but he does create when further up the pitch, his cross led to mitros goal against the scum…..assists must not count now either. Anyway it is what it is!!

Townsend is the reason we lost to Norwich, instead of playing it to Perez who was better place for a cross, he decided he’ll try it himself to cross from a shite angle, they broke and scored…..massive points to give away.

The point is you are on your high horse about dropping Gini but who’s the replacement for him? His goals alone are the reason we aren’t relegated…..take them goals away and we are down!! Any suggestions for a like for like replacement and I’m all ears.

That isn’t an EPL standard defence, with the exception of Mbemba, who himself has been less than the required level since returning from injury.

I usually err on the positive, but its hard to see a bright side unless these players can lift their natural game to something collectively much more than its individual parts, as if taking 12 points from our last 6 games wasn’t unlikely enough.

Nice set up jimmy. I just hope tiote is up for it. Rafa needs to stop his ridiculous set up with sissoko on left, get into the pkayers heads and motivate them. one more insipid loss or draw and we can safely say rafa peaked a while ago, or needs a good team to be a success

It’s not the defence that is a surprise..butRafa needs to realize that it’s that central midfield which is a problem. We have no central defensive midfielder in the squad sine the sunderland game, so whenever ball crosses the halfway line we look pretty doomed. He must get a defensive midfielder in as the first name on the team sheet, looking at rest of our defence..And tiote is not the answer there..For me one of Anita/ Saviet or both should start in that position. First thing is we need to try and stop balls coming to our leaky defence and then build from there..Gini has done nothing in the past few games to be honest, he is just playing coz of his reputetion He needs to be given a good kick on the backside by starting Seim in attacking midfield..townsend and sissoko/perez on the wings is the best bet way have of any creativity..But rafa must get the central midfielod right..He has messed with it too much for my liking..he needs to go back to the basics and keep the formation simple with best players in each position..Even then we might only have the slimmest chance of avoiding the drop.

I very much hope Tiote is picked and up for it too, but again it seems a long shot. He has been out of the side and his last two games were terrible. Even so, Tiote and Shelvey seems to me the only central midfield pairing that is capable of winning the battles in the middle of the park to the degree that might allow us to gain the points to stay up. All of Colback/Shelvey, Anita/Shelvey, Saivet/Shelvey I think would lose those crucial battles more often than not.

2nd part of my post was repost of Ed’s suggested side… don’t think that is on given SDJ looked so in 2nd half last week and Sissoko’s heart wasn’t in it. Agree with his back 4 though it is week as it gets.

Ppl seems to forget just how bad Dummett has been at lb, even if he looks like another Messi compared to Colback and Anita there.

I dont see what Colback will bring to the team either, apart from dangerous tackles and needless freekicks.

Wijnaldum doesnt work as a deep mf, so we should might try Di Jong in that role to bring some composure into the middle?
And our strikers apart from Mitro doesnt excactly set the world on fire, so might aswell try pair him with Doumbia?

So, this would be my team for the weekend. 3-5-2 with Aarons and Townsend in wingback positions.
Attack, attack, attack since we doesnt have the best defence in the league.

Some of the injuries are laughable.As soon as they came from their earlier injury and become fit they immediately got knock or something and lie down again for a futher long period,which is why we’ve got slim chance of staying. .
Rafa should also take the blame for dropping Mitrovic for the vital game against Norwich,who was in a good mood in front of goal.Couple that with wasting Sissoko’s potential by stucking him on the left.That Saivet lad must have been absolute dogshit along with Doumbia.Waste of space and Poor scouting by Graham Carr.
I don’t believe in miracles but we don’t deserve to stay in the PL if we managed to do so.

Hibbitt,
Hope it’s loud in that Platinum club today and going to give it my best shot anyway. Not sure what the best result of Norwich v mackems. Mathematically a mackem win would be better but that might give them renewed belief. So a shite 0-0 is probably better in the bigger picture. We just have to to the simple bit of winning.

Newcastle United managing director Lee Charnley saw his pay package go up by more than 40% as the club flirted with relegation, accounts published today show.( Chronicle )

Well he’s clearly not on a Performance related pay deal then is he ?

The aggregate remuneration of the club’s highest paid director – which includes pay and other benefits – went up from £106,793 to £150,000 in 2015, though the pay rate is not high for a company with a turnover in excess of £120m.

During the same period, the club’s overall wage bill fell to just over 50% of turnover – from 60% the year before – but this is thought to have risen after a number of high profile players were brought in during the summer and January transfer windows.

The club’s financial performance for the year ending June 30, 2015, was widely publicised last week when the club announced that it had made a £19m operating profit (up from £4.7m the year before).

Yes veltman. Your post and Munster Mags excellently written posts on Rafas motivational skills have completely changed my mind on the former CL winner and best available manager in the world with PL experience!

Clearly u havnt a clue, wijnaldum has done nothing in a long time and needs dropped, so if we play cisse then we’re sure to win, is that the way ur thinkin, after all he did score 12 in 13 games a few years back, we might as wel b playing with 9 men

Whether we have any chance of winning today depends on rafas team selection and formation. If we play 4231 then we wont have a chance. He needs to go 4411 or 433. Also he needs to drop players like sissoko to show he means business and not drop players like janmaat and saylor cos theyre injured but cos they are playing poor. Otherwise rafas same as mclaren and pardew and carver. After liverpool next weekend we could actually be relegated how scary is that.

I think Widjnaldum and Sissoko are big game players, and probably our best two players, in terms of potential impact, so it’s a moot point to imagine Rafa dropping them in any of the remaining games while we still have a chance of survival. To be honest, you wanna hope they do get picked and turn it on, because the alternatives aren’t going to get the job done.

Jimmy,
If we play shite and those two go missing I think the crowds season long frustration will let them two have it. Churners won’t be anywhere near the place and Rafa won’t be getting it. If we’re two nil down, I wouldn’t want to be in either ones shoes if he subs them.

Jail have you publicly praised ashley yet for appointing one of the best managers in the world? Secondly could you critique his improvements in points gained and team motivation levels please? I’ll take your opinion on the matter more seriously then. Otherwise, stick to boring us about ashley. Again.

Munster,
I would have publicly praised him had he appointed a manager of Rafa’s stature at the end of last season or the man himself after the Chelsea debacle but I don’t think he deserves any praise at all for going for a last ditch gamble to save his billboards in a move that increasingly looks to late. As for Rafa, I find it hard to criticise because I honestly don’t know who could have came in and done a better job with a team not just shoet of quality and numbers but devoid of any guts at all.

morning all
i expect rafa to start with 4-2-3-1,he may ask sissoko to play right back to fill in for janmaat and bring sdj back in something like this maybe…
———————————-darlow———————————
sissoko————–mbemba——lascelles———–dummett
————————-tiote———-shelvey————————
gini——————————SDJ———————townsend
———————————–mitro———————————

In honor of two dedicated Newcastle fans, who lost their lives supporting Newcastle United.

Their passenger jet was shot down over Ukraine on Thursday July 17th, 2014 by rebels, as they were traveling to support the team in New Zealand.

We will never forget them.

Health Update - 4 Aug, 2016

The good news last week was that after more blood tests my PSA count is still undetectable

This means the prostate cancer is still under control, and there is no trace of it in the body.

Now to be even more vigilant so I can see the Rafa Benitez project come to its fruition over the next few years - wouldn't want to miss that.

Howay The Lads!!>

Ed Harrison

What Is A Football Club?

What is a club in any case?

Not the buildings or the directors or the people who are paid to represent it.

It’s not the television contracts, get-out clauses, marketing departments or executive boxes.

It’s the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city.

It’s a small boy clambering up stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his father’s hand, gawping at that hallowed stretch of turf beneath him and, without being able to do a thing about it, falling in love.